Seasalter and Oare

4th September

A grey and mizzly morning so no photography but birds seen were, 11  egrets, 250 plus starlings, 181 ringed plovers on the roost, 1 marsh harrier, 1 green woodpecker, just one turnstone noted, c.20 swallows, 14 redshanks plus the usual commoner birds.

5th

Another visit to Oare primarily to get photos, inc. 9 curlew sands, c.200 golden plovers, avocets, ruff

and a new Oare tick for me, sanderling on the side of the channel viewed from the lay by.

 Curlew Sandpiper and Dunlin

 Golden Plover

 Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff

 Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff

Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff

 Avocets

   Sanderling

Grove and Oare

3rd September

No boys this week so I paid an overdue visit to Grove this morning where it was unbelievably quiet. I sat in the Feast hide for a while only seeing a few eclipse mallard and gadwall, the best sighting being a grass snake. Quiet on the walk around so went home and finished off some turfing in the garden.

pm.

After a trip to the dump I called in at Oare meeting Tim Gutsell and Bernie at the lay by. Usual birds on view including the long-billed dowitcher, managed a distant shot and a couple of curlew sandpipers were the only birds of note.

 Long-billed Dowitcher

 Black-tailed godwit

1st September........crashed plane

1st September

A lovely sunny morning where my first stop was at SS Lane finding; 3 jackdaws, 2 magpies, 2 swans, 1 heron, 1 cormorant, 4 swallows, starlings and wood pigeons. Moving to the seafront I saw a common sandpiper, new for the year, 190 ringed plovers on the beach, 1 Sandwich tern, 2 common terns and 5 grt blk bk gulls.  On the plots, 4 whitethroat, 2 goldfinches, 4 blue tits, 1 cetti's, 1 great spot wd pker, 1 lesser whitethroat, 1 marsh harrier, first one seen for a couple of months. At the LNR a large flock of 130 goldfinches, the largest I have seen for sometime (3-400 a few years ago).  Along the wall 3 wheatears, 9 egrets flying west and perhaps a corn bunting, I didn't get a good view before it was off.  Also 14 sparrows, a large flock oystercatchers in front of the chalets, 12 common gulls and a clouded yellow.

The other bit of interest was the small plane that did an emergency landing on the fields towards C. Coote, everyone got out ok I believe.

August 2nd half

19th August

On this Saturday I made a visit to Seasalter, it was near high tide enabling me to get a count of 120 ringed plovers roosting on the beach plus  a couple of turnstones. On the plots, 1 juv stonechat, a couple of swallows, 1 sparrowhawk and a swan, very quiet.  Moving up to the LNR there were a couple of linnets by the huts, 1 pied wagtail, 1 wheatear, 3 goldfinches and over the sea, 9 Sandwich terns.

Another visit the next day was much the same.

23rd

Seasalter again finding a whinchat on the seawall, 1 wheatear, 1 kestrel and c.40 linnets also several small heaths and 2 clouded yellows.

 A new fence is being errected running parallel to the seawall all the way to Castle Coote almost, protecting the reedbeds from cows and dogs.

August, First Half.

As predicted August was going to be a busy time looking after others ie the twins school holiday plus the wife's arm in plaster but I did manage a few trips out.

1st Aug.

I made a visit to Temple Ewell hoping to see some Adonis blues but no luck although I didn't search the whole site.  It was quite different from my last visit when there were hundreds of marbled whites and chalkhill blues yet in just a couple of weeks things had changed with no marbled whites seen and numbers of chalkhill much reduced. However, I managed to see a silver-spotted skipper and took some photos of painted ladys, small tortoiseshell, large white and blues.

 Painted Lady

 Small Tortoiseshell

Large White

 Female Chalkhill Blue

 Female Chalkhill Blue

 Male Chalkhill Blue

  Male Chalkhill Blue

Common Blue

6th Aug

A short visit to Seasalter, mainly sitting on the bench talking to Geoff!  However, we did see; c.40 swifts, 1 swallow, 1 sand mardtin 9 little egrets, 2 whimbrels, 1 cormorant, 1 clouded yellow, 1 small copper and 3 com blues. 

8th Aug.

I managed to get a late pm visit to Oare although nothing of note to report except some super storm clouds passing over Elmley.

10th Aug.

Another visit to Oare seeing the huge black-tailed godwit flock plus a 100+ avocets, 1 curlew sandpiper, 6 Med gulls, 1 whitethroat, 2 swifts, no sign of the dowitcher.

11th Aug

Back to Temple Ewell seeing good numbers of chalkhill blues plus one silver-spotted skipper and going through the large gate towards the A2 several adonis blues. 

12th Aug

A visit to Seasalter plots proved very quiet for birds 2 cetti's, 2 whitethroats so I just looked at a few blue butterflies plus I found one brown argus.

 Common Blue male

 Holly Blue

Brown Argus

2nd Half of July

19th/20th July

Two days away with the lads to photograph ospreys at Gwash Trout Farm, close to Rutland Water proved to be a bit of a disappointment as after beautiful weather we encountered dull cloud and drizzle on our time away.  We had booked for two evening sessions, 4.00-9.00pm., the four of us sitting in the hide overlooking a small trout pool where on the first night we had one visit from an osprey. We had just one opportunity when it dived and missed its target and the poor light didn't help either.  The second evening had better light but unfortunately no ospreys.  During the second day we traveled around the 'reservoir' visiting a few of the hides and dodging the 'mizzle'.  We did see a pair of ospreys with two fully grown young from the aptly named 'Osprey Hide' on the south side of the 'reservoir' and a wood sandpiper. We arrived home late that night after having a one hour wait at the Dartford Crossing bridge where all the four lanes were suddenly reduced to one, but not a soul to be seen working on the bridge, just two vans!

24th +

I had a couple of visits to Oare seeing the Bonaparte's gull, turtle dove,ruff, golden plovers, 3 curlew sandpipers but no in depth visits to Seasalter.  

August is shaping up badly with the two twin 6 year olds to entertain during the holidays and to top that the other half fell over at Samphire Hoe on the 2nd and broke or rather smashed her wrist which is now in plaster and out of action for several weeks!!! 

!st Half of July, Dragonflies and Butterflies

4th July

An evening visit to Grove hoping for something to point the camera at, the only items on the menu were the Norfolk hawkers that have being so abundant this year.

5th

A day out to Sissinghurst and Scotney Castle looking for dragonflies, Scotney being the only one producing the goods, I didn't see any emeralds though. The white-legged damselfly was abundant around the lake but no small red-eyes.

White-legged Damselfly

Later that evening I went out looking for barn owls finding a couple but the camera was lacking a bit of shutter speed.

7th

I went to Sheldwich to get a shot of this field of mainly bluish flowers, Echium plantagineum I was led to believe and grown for the oil.

8th

Another visit to Temple Ewell finding heaps of chalkhill blues and marbled whites.

13th/14th

More visits to Temple Ewell photographing the butterflies, marbled whites and chalkhill blues again being the most commonly seen.

 I came across this mating pair amidst all the chalkhill blues and assumed that was what they were but 'commons' look to be a good call as well?

 Gatekeeper

Large White

 Hoverfly

Marbled White